Disability Visibility ★★★★★

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★★

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century Edited by Alice Wong is a series of essays written by people with disabilities talking about their everyday life experiences.

I checked this book out from the library and listened to the audiobook.

From being deaf in prison and being refused and ASL interpreter to designing cute clothing options for people with specific clothing needs based on their disabilities to parenting in a wheelchair and to the deep flaws in NYCs Paratransit - this book is filled with personal accounts giving readers a glimpse into what it is like to live as one of these many contributors - a person with a disability. Many of the contributors are also well known in the disability justice field and their work is turning the tables on what it means to be disabled as well as living in a way that is unapologetic and supportive of other people who are also disabled. The book is broken into 4 parts - Being, Becoming, Doing, and Connecting, and certain stories come with content warnings.

It felt very important for me to read this book, as someone who does not have a physical disability, because I am trying to raise my awareness around access needs for all and hearing from each of these individuals was a powerful way to learn. My favorite quote in the book, by Hannah Gadsby, states, "There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself." #amen

The editor of this book, Alice Wong, also has a podcast. More info can be found on her website, Disability Visibility Project.

If you liked Disability Visibility, I also recommend Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang, Funny Weather by Olivia Laing, and Trauma Stewardship by Laura Lipsky VanDernoot.

Happy reading -

Ms.Bjork